Archive for the ‘Dogs’ Category

And more, and more, and more. We need every drop, but it needs to be coped with. The tractors have been running all day, draining pens and grading roads. About the time the crew gets caught up — it rains again.

One result of all the rain is the appearance of the Headless Dog Monster. This rare species loves to bask in front of a fire — even if it’s not real. Its name happens to be Peaches.

The little stove was a Christmas present from David. The dogs are enjoying it as much as we are. It’s certainly got realistic flames.

I can hear the tractor running now. We’ve got about four days, according to the forecasts, before it rains again. Sigh. Well, it’ll all be worth it when spring comes!

I’ve been putting off writing this blog entry, both because it was painful and because I wanted to see how things were going to come out. I think it’s time now.

A little over a week ago, our friend and boarder Jennifer was riding in the arena by the house when she was thrown, hard. Luckily Billy was looking out, and saw the dust flying. I ran out and found Jennifer on the ground, unable to move. She thought her knee was broken. I ran to the house and told Billy to call an ambulance. In the meantime, I ran back and forth getting water and pillows. When she was as comfortable as possible (not very) I went to catch the horse.

I looked back when I heard Jennifer scream, just in time to see the ever-sympathetic Peaches sitting on Jennifer’s injured knee. I yelled at her, and she jumped off and ran — but not too far. A fire truck arrived about that time, closely followed by the ambulance, and they packed her up and took her off, calling back that she was going to ride that horse yet!

Later we heard that she had a dislocated knee, but that wasn’t the problem. An artery in her leg had torn, and they were flying her to Fresno for surgery. There they took a section of artery from her groin, and used it to mend the torn artery. It was touch and go; she was in danger of losing the leg.

Now, better than a week later, Jennifer still has both legs, but after multiple surgeries, it’s looking like a long hard road to recovery. She’s getting a lot of moral support from her many friends here. It’s looking like she may be transferred back to KMC soon, though she has at least one more surgery to go.

I was worrying that Peaches’ sympathy might have aggravated the injury, but it was the opposite. I understand that the doctor said that her weight popped the knee back into place, and may well have kept Jennifer from bleeding out. They’re calling her Doctor Peaches around here!

Here’s Jennifer at the beach, a while ago . . .

It may take a while, but I expect to see her back there. She’s a very strong person.

And here’s Peaches supervising Jennifer-the-farrier.

I guess she counts horseshoeing as one of her skills, along with medicine!

I woke up yesterday morning to find a hot dog by my pillow. I blinked at it for a few moments; yes, it was a hot dog. Yes, it was sitting on my bed. But how did it get there?

After a few moments, I remembered that earlier Peaches had come in and jumped on the bed, whining. She jumped right off again and left, but I realized she only whines that way when she’s bringing me a Present. No doubt she was disappointed that I hadn’t waked up enough to accept her offering, which some early riser must have given her.

Eventually I staggered out to the living room, where Billy was sleeping peacefully in his recliner. (He’s had to sleep there since he started having back trouble.) Holding the abandoned wiener delicately by one end, I deposited it in the garbage. Peaches no doubt thought it was a perfectly good snack. It only had a little toothmark in one end. Thank goodness it was a naked hot dog; no mustard, ketchup, relish, or bun. Otherwise, things would have been a lot messier.

Life is always interesting when you have a generous Golden Retriever.

Here she is having a good after-swim shake during a ride a few days ago, courtesy of Marion.

As anyone who has ever bathed her can tell you, she is a very good shaker. And gift-giver.

I got out for a ride yesterday — me, Kitty, Peaches, and Xena. It’s really hard for me to get out of the house before nine o’clock or so, and during a heat wave it’s nearly impossible to get a ride in. Yesterday, though, wasn’t bad; so we headed out.

I hadn’t been down to the river for several days, so I was surprised to see that it was up. Not only that, there was water flowing downstream. That hasn’t happened for a long time. Apparently the upstream weirs must have been opened. The willows had their feet in the water. (And here’s the usual shot of Kitty’s ears.)

The dogs, of course, were ecstatic.

Farther up the trail, I found some really pretty spots. The large coarse leaves in the foreground, though, belong to cockleburs.

Watching Peaches push through them on the way back from her twelfth swim . . .

. . . I was really glad they were still green.

Coming home, I passed great-grandaughter Liliana hanging out with her pony.

I haven’t been blogging much, because there hasn’t been a lot going on. The newest heat wave has kept things pretty quiet. Even the Fourth didn’t bring any disasters — at least for us, though there were the usual injuries and fires around town.

Today, though, I woke up and realized that Billy and I have been married forty-five years. We don’t take a lot of notice of birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays, as a rule. We don’t need or want to exchange gifts or do much in the way of celebration. This morning I said, “Do you realize we’ve been married forty-five years today?” And he said, “I thought it was a three-year contract!”

Too late, Billy!

I did get a couple of presents, though. I found this lovely daylily, a gift from Marion, had its first bloom.

And Peaches gave me her bone.

She was quite crushed when I didn’t want it . . .

. . . even though I’d given it to her ten minutes before.

Anyway, the heat wave is over for now, so I expect to be getting out more and finding some newsworthy subjects. It’s only supposed to be in the mid- to high- nineties!

Billy and I were dozing in the living room late last night, when he looked up and said, “There’s a police car out there in the river.” I got up to see, just as flames erupted in the night. It wasn’t a police car, but a fire truck; and it was quickly joined by others. I wanted to get a picture, but the iPhone insisted on using its little flash to light up the whole night. By the time I figured out how to get it to stop, the flames were already dying down.

The fire department got right on it. I counted four or five big trucks cruising back and forth on the bike path to the south, trying to figure out how to get down to the blaze. They found a way, because soon we heard the drone of a pump working, getting water to the right spot. It was all over inside half an hour, though a couple of trucks stayed for quite a while — just in case.

This is only the first. We’ve never had a summer without a few fires on the river. They are usually like this one; put out quickly and posing no danger to our side. The prevailing winds are from the north. Every once in a while, though, there’s a really bad one. We are not looking forward to the Fourth.

It seems right to follow up with something more cheerful. Here’s Peaches and her friend Cochise, in pictures taken by Jennifer. Yet again, Peaches has made a buddy.

In this shot, you can see Cochise is grooming Peaches as he would another horse. I’ve never seen anything like this with our other dogs. Horses will form attachments to dogs, goats, or even cats; but Peaches loves all horses, and they seem to love her right back.

A couple of them have gotten too rough with their teeth, even going so far as to pick her up by her skin, but she is unfazed. Most of them, however, are very gentle and careful. It’s amazing to watch.

At least I hope so. It’s been a while, but not on purpose. I downloaded Windows 10, and I like it a lot — except it couldn’t find any of my pictures. I played with it a while, trying to figure it out, but no success. Finally I asked grandson William for help, and he seems to have gotten it fixed. Let’s see if it will download some photos . . .

Here’s Peaches after a bath. Jennifer S. and her granddaughter Makayla bathed several of my critters for me, and took these pictures.

Here’s Kody . . .

And Bella . . .

Whew. It’s working. I think.

I have some sad news. Dear old Amber, who used to be my horse, died a couple of days ago. She was in her late twenties, and extreme heat is hard on old horses. I haven’t owned her for years, but still feel her loss. She will be missed. She was a good horse.

She was also one of the last links to my life on the coast, forty-five years ago. I bought her after I moved here and married Billy, but she was probably the last foal bred by my old friend Sid Spencer, who raised great Morgans for so many years. I’ll always look back on the visits to her ranch with pleasure. It was a beautiful place, and even more so before the best part of it wound up under Lopez Lake.